Study Says Obesity Costs Women More than Men

We already knew medical bills are higher for the obese, but apparently that's not the only increased cost of being so overweight.

According to a new George Washington University study, if you factor in employee sick days, lost productivity, even the increased cost of gasoline, the price per year is much higher.

The study found the annual cost of being obese is $4,879 for women and $2,646 for men, whereas the cost of being overweight is an additional $524 for women and $432 for men.

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But cost is not even the most unfortunate finding of the study. The most unfortunate part is why it costs women so much more than men.

Researchers had expected everybody's wages to suffer with obesity, but "this indicates you're not that disadvantaged as a guy, from a wage perspective," study co-author and health policy professor Christine Ferguson told MSNBC.

Basically, larger women earn less than skinnier women, but wages don't differ between skinny and large men.

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This is infuriating but unfortunately not surprising. A woman's looks play a much bigger role in her professional success than a man's looks, whether that's her style, her natural beauty or of course her weight.

Obesity is a real problem for society, not only because of the health implications but also the amount of money it costs. In fact, the study found nearly 1 billion additional gallons of gasoline are used every year because of increases in car passengers' weight since 1960.

As a society, we need to get a handle on this problem. In 30 years it could be crippling considering two-thirds of Americans are overweight or obese, childhood obesity has tripled in the past three decades and nearly 18 percent of adolescents now are obese.

But the fact that obesity takes such a toll on women's careers whereas it doesn't have the parallel affect on men's, says sexism in the workplace is another problem we have to get a handle on.